This Week in Food Blogs: Maggie Rita's Meets Its Maker

Houston Business Journal: In the first of this week's big news items, the HBJ reports that Maggie Rita's has closed its Galleria and Shepherd locations. No surprise, considering the overall quality of the food and the fact that the Kirby location was closed not too long ago. Maybe we'll finally get some Taco Towns now.

Eater Houston: Less than a week after we named Brasserie 19 as our favorite restaurant in River Oaks, executive chef Amanda McGraw parted ways with the swanky spot. McGraw had been with Brasserie 19 since the restaurant opened in summer 2011, and is the fourth executive chef to have departed since that time.

The Heights Leader: I am loving the newly invigorated Leader, especially because its food section is chock-full of interesting tidbits like these: D&T Drive-Inn has been purchased by the owners of Down House, who plan to "create a modern interpretation of the Texas ice house." Wonder how the residents in the quiet neighborhood off Cavalcade will respond to the flood of hipsters (myself included) which will surely follow...

CultureMap: In other bar news, Darla Guillen has more on Underdogs, the low-key craft beer bar that took over the old Lot space on Washington Avenue. Owners Steven Warren and Dustin Evans are committed to helping transform the street -- once the hottest spot in town for bars and clubs -- into something less flashy, more stable and enduringly popular.

Dude, You Going to Eat That?: Have you ever wondered why almost all pairing dinners at restaurants are wine-pairing dinners? While beer dinners are beginning to represent a small portion of beverage pairing dinners, Dr. Ricky wants to know why pairing dinners are limited to just alcoholic beverages -- and discusses a recent, successful non-alcoholic pairing dinner from Chef Steve Marques at Coal Vines in Sugar Land, where Marques highlighted his homemade phosphates and sodas.

Eater: Lastly, we turn again to Eater -- the national site this time around -- for your weekly dose of douche. Yelp extortionists have new competition, reports Amy McKeever: the ReviewerCard, "an identification card that purports to secure its holders better service by warning business owners, 'I write reviews.'" No, this is not an Onion article. Yes, it gets worse.